96 Acres is a series of community-engaged, site-responsive art projects that address the impact of the Cook County Jail on Chicago’s West Side. We aim to generate alternative narratives reflecting on power, and to present creative projects that reflect the community’s vision of transformation.

In Fall 2014, 96 Acres' Education Initiative hosted three workshops to address the ways in which power is manifested through place. Place could be determined as physical space, imagined space, or internalized space. The questions were created over the course of several Education Initiative meetings, where educators, activists, and artists met with the purpose of engaging praxis, or critical reflection and action on power and place with a broader community.

1) How do we celebrate radical love and empower for action?
2) What does power look like?
3) What is the relationship between individual and systemic power?

Each workshop was documented and then turned into a toolkit that educators, activists, artists could use to continue having those conversations. Each toolkit includes actions (tasks, "assignments," or activities) and guided reflection questions for further engagement.

The value of having conversations around power and place with students, youth, and educators is to form a space where people can critically engage in dialogue and radically imagine new narratives that allow us to actively participate in the transformation of our communities, particularly as we address how incarceration predominantly affects black and brown people. The purpose is to activate alliances, build solidarity, and continue working towards creating alternative and socially just spaces.

Toolkit pdf's are available upon request. Please contact me at silvia.ines.gonzalez@gmail.com or 96acresproject@gmail.com

An extension of my current research around Art and Transformative Practices, I am involved with the project 96 Acres as a teaching artist and education initiative committee member. During the Fall of 2014 I also co-hosted a playshop with other educators interested in utilizing art, organizing and radical play in resisting systemic oppression.

Reclaiming Radical Play for Organizing was a "playshop" hosted for 96 Acres which is an artist initiative comprised of educators, Little Village stakeholders, students, activists, and artists seeking to address how incarceration affects black and brown communities, specifically how Cook County Jail affects the black and brown community in Chicago. The workshop was proposed under the provocation set by the 96 Acres Education Initiative seeking to understand ways we come together to in resisting systems of oppression using celebration and radical love as a means of playful, caring, and accountable resistance.

This workshop was a kick -off for two upcoming workshops that also address power (whether it is systemic, individual) and they are grounded in praxis or reflection-action necessary when doing socially engaged work. Reclaiming Radical Play for Organizing consisted of three Chicago based artists and educators, Coya Paz a self described poet, lip gloss connoisseur and artistic director of Free Street Theater, socially-engaged artist, organizer and education coordinator at the Jane Addams Hull House Irina Zadov and myself, photographer, cultural worker, and teaching artist at the Village Leadership Academy.

This thesis is a living, work in progress. Further documentation and processess will be expanded upon throughout the experience. I am looking to use resources already available as models for continual praxis that engages dialogue and action for social change.

Purpose:
To engage in “art as ritual” which acknowledges the complexity of identity as individual, creator, and sustainer of community using the arts as a way to embody vision of hope and healing.
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My practice is about encouraging community revitalization through the sharing of stories, using art as a medium for dialogue. I see art as an opportunity for exchange, and as a result a positive catalyst for community healing and action.

Fall 2013 Internship at the Ryan Education Center, Teacher Programs.
-Utilizing documentation as a tool for reflection and assessment of programming.
-Encouraging the use of museum resources while facilitating workshops that aim to provide educators with applicable learning experiences to take back to their own classroom and teaching spaces.

Woman Made Gallery hosted 20 Neighborhoods project for a second year of art-making and community-building, this time united under the theme “A City of Communities.” As part of Chicago Artists Month, all of the groups came together for a final exhibition at Woman Made Gallery, from October 26th that runs through October 31st.

A group of artists from Albany Park came together at the Centro Autónomo with the initial intention to make art around themes of community and relationships. Over the course of our workshops, other important themes emerged, including light and darkness, cycles, interdependence, nature, body consciousness, change, and personal history. Through the use of light and shadow, we created sun-exposed prints that served to identify how individual objects could be organized together in time and space. In our explorations of other printmaking and image transfer techniques, we became conscious of our hands and bodies in motion, sharing and reflecting on our personal herstories as they emerged symbolically and through organic patterns. Throughout our creative explorations, artists acknowledged the emergence of a sense of solidarity and support, which guided our newly-formed community as we worked to uplift one another through shared stories and mutual empowerment.

August 2012- June 2013
Worked with Marquette School of Excellence Middle School Students.
Themes explored: What is art, what are some of the ways in which we express stories through art, and what is my story?

Youth were asked to consider how photography can be used as a means for storytelling. Over the course of 15 weeks, students viewed media messages created by the mainstream in contrast to conceptual art photography primarily created by women photographers. They were then asked to consider the following: what is your story and how will you tell it? How will you re-present yourself?"